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In reply to Paul Ross: When Poles refered to the 6 million Polish citizens that perished under the German Nazis as Polish, it was Jewish groups that protested and insisted on separating the Jewish from the Polish victims, calling Poles anti-semitic for lumping the Polish Jews along with other Poles. Now when Poles separate the two groups Paul Ross calls them anti-Semitic for separating the two groups. When Polish groups wanted mention of anti-Polish genocide by Germany during WW II to be mentioned in California schools, Jewish groups opposed this. In the TV series, the Holocaust, both a Jewish producer and Jewish director allowed in the movie a totally false depiction of Polish soldiers involved in the liquidation of the Warsaw Ghetto. These, and many other instances, show an anti-Polish bias, and also a false and incompete historiography, within the Jewish community. This is unfortunate and needs to be confronted. It appears to me that anti-Polish bias dictates that no matter what Poles do, it must be interpreted as anti-Semitism. From this point on any argument coming from Paul Ross must be viewed from what certainly appears to be anit-Polish bias.

It is the most precise definition of oxymoronic "national independence" (ethnic sovereignty rather) discourse dominating in majority of Eastern European countries. It is astounding how xenophobic, blood and soil discourse (counter to wich EU established as a remedy) is reproducing itself in present day "Eastern EU member-states".

In reply to Algirdas Davidavicius: Oh, and Western Europe, with their colonies and history of perpetrating genocide against Asians, Africans, native American Indians and Eastern Europeans are an example to Eastern Europeans. There have been enough recent developments in Western Europe to debunk the superiority of the Western European allegedly kinder approach to immigrants over the Eastern European approach. Poland, btw, has taken in 1 million Ukrainian immigrants due to the war with Russia there, and are still trying to bring Poles stranded in Siberia and the gulag. Unfortunately, there is such a thing as anti-Polish bias that appears to be blinding to people such as Davidavicius, who simply ignore facts, as they mindlessly and chauvinistically try to elevate themselves and Western Europeans at the cost of the poorer, perhaps because they are honest and do not try to exploit others (or exterminate them outright), Eastern Europeans. The real reason Germany may want to accept immigrants might be that they need cheap labor to support their economy and aging population, a population that is either too old, or maybe too superior, to perform the menial jobs that they seem to consider more suitable for immigrants. Just a theory ...., no worse than the observations and comments of Davidavicius.

The commentary here, particularly from those opposed to Mr. Gross is fascinating to say the least. It presupposes two groups in Poland around the World Two era, "Poles" and "Jews", this implicit distinction being "Jews" were not "Poles".

From this point forward any argument must be viewed from what certainly appears to be an anti-Semitic bias.

The Chancellery of the President of the Republic of Poland will investigate a motion to take away from Jan Tomasz Gross the Commander’s Cross of the Order of Merit of the Republic of Poland which was granted in 1996 by president Aleksander Kwasniewski.

A petition by Polish Anti-Defamation League for taking away the Order has been signed by over 32 thousand people so far. The Order of Merit of the Republic of Poland is a Polish order awarded to those who have rendered great service to the Polish nation to the cooperation of Poland with other countries or nations.

You can’t say that Gross’ activity is a great service to the Polish Nation or to the cooperation of Poland with other countries or nations.

Gross’ propaganda journalism humiliating Poles and Poland, deprecating us in the eyes of other nations leads not to cooperation, but to exacerbation of Jewish-Polish relations. The Gross’ articles, falsely describing Poles as perpetrators of genocide, help to strengthen amongst Jews the false belief about Poles, resentments and prejudice. The Gross’ activity harms also the German-Polish relations.

To Victor Douglas: yes, Poland had anti-semitism, but if you want to point that out, you must also know there was Jewish anti-Polish attitudes. There were even extreme right wing Jewish organizations parading and goosestepping in Nazi like uniforms. Neither Polish anti-semitism or Jewish chauvenism had any role in the genocide of Poles and Jews. Most Poles and Jews were just human beings and treated one another as human beings. The two glasses of Polish and Jewish hatred were .1% full, (I am somewhat exaggerating here) but in the eyes of Gross, all you see is the .1% full anti-semitic glass. No sign of the 99 % part, or the similar .1% glass of anti-Polish hatred. That is why, in my eyes, HE is a disgrace.

Mar Cin, as you may well know, Western Europe consigned Eastern Europe without a peep to Soviet domination and 50 years of crippling Soviet style economic policies, AS a direct result of the German racist attempt at colonialisation and genocide aimed at Eastern Europe that caused WW II, and then the occupation of Eastern Europe by the Soviets.

The District Prosecutor's Office Warszawa-Żoliborz has opened an investigation into the Gross' slanders in the article.

The investigation is held uder the article 133 of the Polish penal code. "Whoever insults the Nation or the Republic of Poland in public shall be subject to the penalty of the deprivation of liberty for up to 3 years."

The District Prosecutor's Office has received 125 crime reports in this case.

This is not the first Gross' attack on Poles. Earlier for example he claimed that Poles, thretened with death penalty and the murder of their whole families for helping Jews, who didn't help Jews are German's assistants or even beneficiaries of Holocaust.

How can you blame Eastern Europe for the appalling economic and social mismanagement of European affairs by the German elites?
The Hungarians knew full well that German public opinion would not be able to embrace the potential arrival of a possible 3 million Syrian refugees in Germany. They knew that the Germans would go back on their word and that Eastern Europe would then be expected to host these refugees while still being expected to maintain the budget deficit limit of 3%.

What does Europe stand for nowadays? Complete stupidity and hypocrisy?

Don't blame the Eastern Europeans for being practical peoples. They don't have the luxury of living in the centre of Europe with a buffer of other states to protect them from their idiotic foreign policy and economic austerity blunders.

Dear Mr. Olsen:
xenophobic public opinion and anti-immigrant mobilisation in Eastern European countries is more than preposterous given that all European inhabitants historically are migrants and refugees from other parts of the world, however sedentary later. To reject humanity and rights of refugess and fear for supposedly fragile ethnic or cultural identity of our own here is absurd. No identity can be destroyed by helping fellow human beings in clear need, especially when the EU as a whole, sharing it's resources and effort, really can provide this.

Many elderly people in the formerly communist countries of Central Europe live on less than an asylum seeker is granted in Germany or Sweden. Where will these countries, impoverished by communism, find the resources to support Muslim migrants? And don't they, and all of Europe, have a special duty after the Holocaust to avoid importing populations that will foment anti-Jewish violence? French Jews were strongly supportive of groups like SOS Racisme that opposed any contraints on the influx from North Africa. The result is a country that Jews now flee to Israel. And speaking of Israel, Israel is right next door to Syria. Israel is taking NONE of these refugees, because they won't make Jewish people safer. Eastern Europe is entitled to make the same observation.

Beyond this, I have to object to the anti-Polish smear. 3 million Jewish Poles and 3 million non-Jewish Poles died during World War II. Germany's goal was to kill the Jews before the Polish gentiles, but both were slated for annihilation. If a Polish gentile resisted, the schedule for killing him or her was simply brought forward. Outside of Jedwabne, the Polish gentiles killed few Jews and saved many, even while struggling to survive under an occupation that in some cases simply shut off all flows of food to Polish cities. Poland, like most European countries, had plenty of anti-Semitism in the 1930's, but Poland is not even 1% responsible for the Holocaust. That was a German doing.

This is a disgraceful lie and slander that “Poles (…) killed more Jews than Germans during the war.” Mr Gross earlier claimed that Poles murdered 200 thousand Jews. Then he backed out and claimed that several dozen thousand. Do you know how he arrived to such conclusions? It is estimated that 10% Jews (over 250 thousand people) could escaped from Germans (from ghettos, transports, camps etc). After the WWII registered not more than 60 thousand . So what happend to the 190 thousnad Jews? They must have been killed, and Mr Gross without any proof claims that many died at the hands of Poles. Facts that every escapee was executed on the spot by Germans without evidence are not important for him. These are simply hideous slanders and anti-Polish propaganda.

NOT ONLY HOLOCAUST. The aim of Germans was to “destroy Poland completely” - the whole Polish nation not only the Jewish population.

On 22 August 1939 Hitler ordered Wehrmacht commanders “to kill without mercy men, women and children of the Polish origin and language. This way we obtain the lifespace (Lebensraum) we need. Poland will be deserted and sattled by Germans.” In other speech he said about his plans towards Poland “only nation, whose leadership class will be destroyed, can be transformed into slaves”

On March 15, 1940, at a meeting of the commandants of various camps in occupied Poland, Heinrich Himmler, the head of the SS and German police, said:

“All skilled workers of Polish background are to be used in our war industry. Afterwards, Poles will disappear from the world.... Every German’s time is coming. That is why it is necessary for the great German people to see their main task in the destruction of all Poles.”

The first Prisoners in Auschwitz were Poles, the Polish intelligentsia. The first transport arrived to the camp on 14 June 1940. Every transport was welcomed by these words: "You arrived here not to a sanatorium, but to a German concentration camp, from which there is only one exit - through the chimney. If someone doesn't like this - can right away go to Barbed Wire Electric Fence. If in the transport there are Jews, they can live not more than two weeks. If there are priests, they can live one month, the rest three months.” For the first 2 years Poles we the biggest group of prisoners in the camp. Not only Auschwitz, there are many other places, symbols of the extermination of Poles and the Polish intelligentsia: Palmiry, Piasnica, Intelligenzaktion i AB-Aktion, Pawiak, Dachau – a place where Polish Catholic Priests were murdered, Sachsenhausen, Buchenwald, Stutthof, Gusen and almost 5 thousend other German camps were Poles were exterminated.

These all are facts in contrast with the disgusting Gross’ lies that Poles killed more Jews than Germans. The Polish Underground State, The Polish Government in Exile, and the Polish Army (Home Army) killed only Germans and rescued Jews. There was no given command to kill Jews. Poles were the same exterminated by Germans as Jews.

As regards economic immigrants (most of the people are not real refugees) these were Germans who encouraged the people to come to Germany because they needed fresh labour and because of their multikulti policy. The matter was beyond the Germans’ capabilities and they decided to share forcibly the problem with other European countries.

Poland has been always open to real war refugees. We have taken in thousands of Ukrainians and Chechens. Moreover still thousand of Poles living in exile for example in the Eastern Ukraine – descendants of forcibly displaced Polish people by Sowiet NKVD during WWII, now endangered by pro-russian terrorists, are waiting for coming back to Poland. We should first help them. In addition Poland after the WWII and 45 years of the communist regime installed by Moscow is still quite a poor country.

In Poland 900 000 children are living in poverty, most of unemployed people don’t have any benefit and the lucky ones who receives it gets 100 Pounds per month and only during half a year. If he/she don’t have money for paying a rent he/she is thrown out onto the street. Refugees in Poland receives about 200 Pounds and can count on a flat and a job. Is this normal? Certainly not.

Tho whole truth and nothing but the truth about second world war is still waiting to be said. Mr. Gross is doing a good thing revealing some things beyond official/politically correct history. In the early XX century eugenics policies were implemented all over Europe and US, but history was quite fast to offer the needed lesson on their malignity when germans took them to horrible extent, yes, this is about the Holocaust. So let's repeat this to make it more clear. Many developed societies implemented eugenics at that time, and the german holocaust was extreme, out of control eugenics. Maybe if eugenics was not such an appreciated practice in the political world, the holocaust could not exist. It's once again, a collective blame on the political world.
About the refugee crisis the truth is that Germany is trying to reduce the costs of harboring all the refugees by making eastern Europe pay some of those costs. The real dispute is on the expenses. The european solidarity is solidarity in cutting some of Germany's loss. Why Germany ? Because the great majority of the refugees want to get there and despite the illusory bureaucratic approach is where they will get.
Evidently a solidarity different from the solidarity fit for Greece.

The problem with Gross, is that there are serious issues with his version of the truth. I know that for naive people who are less than knowledgeable in Polish history, anything one reads that is negative about Poland sounds good, especially when the negativity is repeated and repeated, and facts that are counter to such "truths", are censored, and especially when people operate with stereotypes and bigotry.

One must take JT Gross' remarks with a grain of salt. Consider his background: a physicist from Poland who switched gears upon immigrating to the US and earned a degree in sociology at Princeton. Somehow appointed a professor of history at Princeton. His tendency to generalize singular events as applicable to an entire nation marks him as a brilliant propagandist, but a very sloppy historian. So does his selective gamesmanship with the number of victims, their murderers, etc. The central theme of most of his books is sticking it to the Poles as the most vicious antisemites in Europe, so this article is hardly a surprise. It is also useful to remember, that Gross was forced to leave Poland. In the late 60's, a communist party faction with a large number of Jewish intellectuals in its ranks lost a power struggle. This resulted in a shameful "anti-Zionist" propaganda campaign aimed at those individuals. Many, like Gross who is half-Jewish, were imprisoned and given a choice to leave the country or remain in Poland with few prospects. Gross' family chose the former and came to the US. It is hardly surprising then, that anyone forced out of his country under such circumstances would not be resentful. However, Gross takes it to a whole different level. He offers little in terms of serious scholarship, but instead serves up dollops of rabble-rousing propaganda. This article reads like something an overzealous politician would write in an oped piece rather than a Princeton professor. Saddest part here is that this man is teaching a very complex, very nuanced subject of Jewish and Eastern-European relations to the future leaders of the United States in a bigoted and one-sided manner that has nothing to do with serious scholarly inquiry.

Eastern Europeans especially the Hungarians who were tortured and slaughtered during the Islamic crusade (jihad) and victory at Kosovo Polje 1389 and Hungary 1526 in their advance through towards Vienna in 1529 and then again 1683 will not let themselves be enslaved and subjugated again. Not unlike the fear Russians and Ukrainians still harbour of the Mongol invasion and conquest in their orgy of violence and destruction throughout the 13th century.

Jan Gross is clearly well-informed about the historical record of East European countries regarding migrants, especially those who were Jewish. Germany's response to the present surge of mainly Syrian migrants is, by contrast, both intelligent and humane. But, apart from history, the factor which strikes me as most shameful about the current crisis is that many nations not affected by violent conflict have been supplying the arms which have done almost all the damage in the Middle East. I suspect arms dealers in the UK, the USA and Russia are the main culprits. It seems to me quite disgusting that many citizens if these countries now say, "All this carnage in such places as Syria is nothing to do with us. It is their own silly fault. Why should they now come to us for refuge". Are we not ALL guilty for allowing the planet now to be awash with arms? And are not those who sell arms to faraway troublespots - and have not yet met, let alone helped, a single migrant - the guiltiest of all?

Only misinformed or less than knowledgeable would consider Jan Gross well-informed whereby his commwnts on the topic are to be taken seriously. Read the other comments from beginning to end and you might consider that Mr. Gross may not always know what he is talking about, or may have made statements that are not necessarily proven fact, and, in fact, are gross generalizations and stereotyping that any decent person needs to stay away from.

This text has very clear shade of propaganda. I don't know whom baggages is the author carring but I sense a hidden agenda behind this text. Trying to make people to feel guilt in order to alter their behaviour/judgment is a propaganda tactic. Mr. Gross, you can do better.

Where on planet earth is the so-called "Coalition of the willing" for Syria, today? A coalition to willing to donate arms and money to kill and destroy in the name of saving lives.
Excellent, the very people whose lives they want safe are now at their borders, after at a lot toiling, sacrifice, abuses, hunger. Is it opening the borders to them more expensive than the cost of the war? It is a pity to see children, old people and the disables walking long distances, hungry and thirsty to become more frustrated due to the drama and indecision by the EU.
This the time to show genuine love to these innocent souls to rebuild their lives. We are all creations of God. We are all one irrespective of our religious affiliations. All that is needed in this world is TRUE LOVE for each other and PEACE that surpasses all understanding.

Crisis the U.K. and U.S. created because they have no knowledge of history. Unable to take military action against Syria the U.S. resorted to inciting rebellion in Syria and then clandestinely aiding and abetting implanted Sunni rebels that metamorphosed into ISIL. Using terrorists for regime change is not only portentous in its long-term ramifications, it's suicidal.

On this subject, I would recommend recent writing of Slaoj Zizek in LRB, "The Non-Existence of Norway
Slavoj Žižek on the refugee crisis" ( http://www.lrb.co.uk/2015/09/09/slavoj-zizek/the-non-existence-of-norway).
Reading the comments here, obviously the public is not aware of nature and seriousness of problem.

The second point, it is good that countries of former Yugoslavia are not clasified with these central and eastern European countries. Seems that In lot of issues West Balkan is more European than the countries acepted to the EU from 2004. These countries missed the conditionality games, Copenhaguen criteria...

The premise of this article is absurd. The Holocaust and the current situation of migrant/refugees are not comparable. Poland, Germany and Eastern Europe cannot atone for their historical sins by importing radical anti-Semites from the Middle East, Africa and Afghanistan.

Greece, Hungary, Slovakia and Croatia are not wealthy. The Balkan countries have responsibilities to their own citizens first.

The difference that this author deliberately ignores, between Jewish refugees and Muslim refugees, is that the co religionists of these `Jewish refugees were not declared enemies of all Western countries, whereas the muslims are. It seems inhumane to refuse sanctuary to poor people of the muslim faith, but it seems equally self destructive to allow millions of them into the countries of Western Europe, where they will establish their own communities, with their own anti democratic and outdated practises. To allow your declared enemies to invade your countries, and to welcome them, seems entirely masochistic. I think that the Eastern Europeans, poor themselves, are indeed quite right.

Movement of populations within Europe were mostly compatible with the broad Western Christian tradition. Assimilation was not in question. Muslims from Africa and the Middle East present a different challenge. So far, Muslims settled in Europe have not assimilated to any extent. They have become a social and security challenge. To assume optimistically that Germany, for example, can assimilate 800,000 Muslims every year indefinitely beggars belief. The endless open door will disrupt the social structure of Europe irreversibly and impose a severe burden on the low income class that will face this challenge directly.

Christopher Bowen makes a point about the impossibility of assimilation.
When the mind is so strongly polarized that assimilation is impossible, always best to build Bonn on one side, Berlin on the other.
Until the day when "Brandenburg Gate" is no longer needed.
Often though in geographies with such polarization, even the enclaves of prosperity remain so polarized.
That even within its own neighbourhood, assimilation is impossible - viz. no shortage of enclaves of prosperity in Arabia.
But any attempts to assimilate "Other Arabs" within those enclaves, is impossible - polarization prevents integration.
And then of course the blame game is endless - solution seemingly not the neighbourhood responsibility....
Sad and unfortunate....when the mind is frozen due polarization.
Always in the mind.

In the article by Professor Gross, there is one factual sentence actually reflecting the refugee crisis: "Now Muslim refugees and survivors of other wars, having found no refuge in Eastern Europe, also are fleeing to safety among the Germans."

The problem with this is that almost none of the refugees want to find refuge in anywhere else but Germany and their level of cooperation is very low with any of the authorities on the way to Germany. (Just read reports from Austria, Denmark and other countries).

Border countries of the Schengen area are expected to register the refugees to channel their ways into a manageable track. EU countries to date fall into one of the following categories in this respect:
1. some (like Greece) allow the flood of hundreds of thousands of people thorugh their territories, with a clear violation of the EU rules.
2: some (like Hungary) tried to stick to rule of law, but the way how the managed can be criticized along humanitarian concerns. Later it turned out that Hungarian authorities are also unable to enforce the Schengen rules, mostly due to uncooperative behaviour of their southern neighbours (for Hungary: Serbia and Croatia).
3: some (like Austria) commented on the "bad" experiences of countries falling into the above two groups and then, when confronted by the situation in their own territory, started mixing the practices of the above two.

The other parts of the article contain opinions (of Professor Gross) about an unrelated historical event and deserve critical comments in a different context. At a certain point of the seuence of events, the Austrian Chancellor compared Hungarian practices (when Hungarian authorities put refugees on trains heading towards Austria) to Holocaust. It was soon and first disallowed by Hungarian Jewish organizations first, who refuted relativizing Holocaust this way. (Then Austria started applying the same tricks they criticized a few days before... ) I do not see any reason to compare the refugee crisis to Holocaust.

The notion that Europe, Poland, and Germany should atone for their historical sins (antisemitism) by importing radical anti-Semites is patently crazy. Antisemitism is on the rise in Europe and Middle-Eastern immigrants are responsible for it.

Of course, the burdens of imported hate don't stop with attacks on Jews. In France, immigration has brought new words into the French language such as "tournante" or taking turns (for gang rapes of local girls). In Germany, immigration has brought "honor killings" ("The Death of a Muslim Woman: "The Whore Lived Like a German"" - http://www.spiegel.de/international/the-death-of-a-muslim-woman-the-whore-lived-like-a-german-a-344374.html). The women in question (Hatin Surucu) was killed by her family because she wore jeans and dated a German boy. In the UK, immigration has brought kidnappings and sexual slavery of local (underage) girls on a staggering scale (with the help of the local police). See "Rotherham child sexual exploitation scandal" - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rotherham_child_sexual_exploitation_scandal for the sordid. A completely typical detail is how one local woman complained about the rapes and was recommended for "diversity training" because of her supposed "racism".

Like it or not, Gross isn't troubling himself or his readers with truth. The illegals ("migrants") coming to Europe are about as necessary as a migraine headache. The sad truth is that far from being an economic panacea, the illegals coming to Europe will be a cradle to grave burden. See "Look North, Chancellor Merkel" (http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/423935/look-north-chancellor-merkel-andrew-stuttaford). A few quotes should help.

"Sweden takes in more refugees per capita than any other European country, and immigrants – mainly from the Middle East and Africa – now make up about 16 per cent of the population. The main political parties, as well as the mainstream media, support the status quo. Questioning the consensus is regarded as xenophobic and hateful. Now all of Europe is being urged to be as generous as Sweden. So how are things working out in the most immigration-friendly country on the planet? Not so well, says Tino Sanandaji. Mr. Sanandaji is himself an immigrant, a Kurdish-Swedish economist who was born in Iran and moved to Sweden when he was 10. He has a doctorate in economics from the University of Chicago and specializes in immigration issues. This week I spoke with him by Skype. “There has been a lack of integration among non-European refugees,” he told me. Forty-eight per cent of immigrants of working age don’t work, he said. Even after 15 years in Sweden, their employment rates reach only about 60 per cent. Sweden has the biggest employment gap in Europe between natives and non-natives. From Davos to Brussels, the conventional wisdom is that a massive influx of immigrants is needed to prop up Europe’s welfare states. Unexplained is how the unemployed are meant to pay for the pensions of the retired."

Gross worships illegals because of his allegiance to the cheap labor kleptocracy and his own devotion to the fantasy of a borderless world. Saner folks should remember that a nation without borders dies.

Refugees can contribute much to GDP growth of a country job creation the diversity of skils and cultural enrichiment but political opportunism and nationalism are dictating a course that closes the doors people who are victims of regional conflicts ignoring basic historical truth from civilized life

I truly think that by having this kind of professors in the Princeton, the USA has achieved nothing in its international policy for the last 50 years, except an indefinite wars. How many Iraqis refugees the USA accepted? When this person was for he last time in Poland? Because I can see there thousands of Ukrainian people, learning (40 000 at least), working (200 000 at least) and nobody is somehow going on the streets to protest against it. I can see the Jewish people each day and never saw them being attacked.
Please also go to the USA Department of State last info about a procedure of accepting the 10 000 Syrian refugees (in 300 mln people country), which is to take 18 to 24 months, with a triple line of verification etc.
There is a nationalism in Poland, there are many examples of a negative behaviour from a primitive people, but it is not the whole nation perspective. Like having 1 millions people imprisoned in the USA, doesn't make all American criminals. I somehow found it even difficult to dignify this article with an answer, but had to. I live in the USA, just to make You Mr Gross sure, that You are not only Pole there.

Nations have no shame, only their own national interest, to speak of. Although PR can also be of some limited interest. To solve the refugee problem one must go to the root cause of the problem. Proxy wars between the super powers cannot be solves easily.
So I suggest that those who claim that we are all God's children but not willing to share with your brothers and sisters need to stop making the claim. No one likes a hypocrite.
Prove me wrong, pleeeezzz!

If the causes of climate change are indeed a natural response to overuse of fossil fuel and not causes by weather weapons, then the world is entering a new reality. Natural Climate Change does not recognize political boundaries or ownership. It does not recognize nationality. Nations are a human made concept which we have imposed on the earth. This migration is the beginning of the Climate Change reality. Human beings respond by clinging to their old methods of control. They erect fences, vote for conservative candidates, hate those in need and turn their backs on the problem. But Climate Change is not impressed. It will work its will regardless of the amazing human capacity of denial. It is here even if we close our eyes and pretend it isn't. No matter how much we hate, we have no power to stop it except by cooperating and by facing reality. If Climate Change is the result of human weapons, then of course that is another matter and migration is being used as a weapon by those in charge of such weapons. I hope the world can open its eyes instead of living in the propaganda fantasy world which our Media designs for us. I pray the world will learn to cooperate and to have compassion for those in need. Climate Change ignores boundaries and constitutions just as we try to ignore the results of our greed. The truth is knocking on our doors. At some point, we will have to open the door of our illusions and let truth in. I wonder how long that will take?

Is it a crisis of shame or is it that the societies of the region known as Eastern Europe are looking into the cracked mirror of the Middle East and are seeing themselves? Is it of any significance that Hungary - home to one of the largest Romani populations in the region living under oppressive conditions for centuries - has adopted the strategy it has towards the refugees?

Mr. Gross, why didnt you mention Serbia's humane behavior towards refugees? Police officers are kind to them, common people give them food and water on their way, state institutions are helping them, and not a single incident occurred.

Not to mention that most of the refugees are muslims, and during the 90s Serbs were falsely branded by the western media as genocidal maniacs , anti-muslim savages. How come they are now the ONLY ones to act in civilized manner?

As a son of a Turkish "Gastarbeiter" from Turkey in 1961 to the coal mines of Essen, my father and a dozen others had been welcome on Breilsort Strase 31 in Essen with a welcoming company band. World has changed. Germany has changed. Europe has changed.

The Syrian nightmare is the result of post Soviet and post Reagan USA political arms and petroleum political debacle, sidelined by Alewi-Sunni Muslim centruries old divide and differences. The Soviets and now Russia and USA are taking advantage of this divide, financed by Saudi and Iranian oil money.

Syrians led by the dictatorial Assad family, representing less than 20% of Syrians are being massacred for their non-Alewi convictions and are being bombed out of their ancient homes by their own "Muslim" brothers.

Europe should not be blamed for the recent "skeptical welcome" for these unfortunate Syrians. What needs to be done is to convene the United Nations, European Union, Arab League and Iranian representatives to address the economic and political mess since 1971 when the Assad family took over in Syria.

Renmove the giant redwood tre in your own eye before commenting about the splinter in your neighbours eye .

The authors country (U.S) has accepten less Iraquibrefugees than the Swedish city of Södertälje has. Exactly why is it assumed that the crisis in the middle east is not anything U.S. has any responsability for. The consequences of the failed search for nonexisting WMD---->self given nation building task----->ISIS controlled territory does put responsability on the U.S. This is not sametinget that dissapears just because the countrys leader blames it on bad (should have bern low) intelligence. So who exactly has no shame?

"The Institute of National Remembrance has sent to the editor of the German newspaper" Die Welt "letter of vice president of the Institute Paul Ukielskiego, which debunks a false claim contained in a column by Jan Tomasz Gross on Polish history. Contrary to the assertions Gross actions of thousands of people who rescued Jews were not taken on its own hand. Polish Underground State clearly indicated his attitude to genocide against the Jewish people, criminalizing crimes and denunciations "- says in the letter. Also, Foreign Ministry spokesman Marcin Wojciechowski said that the text Gross is "historically untrue, harmful and offensive to Poland."

Mr Gross claimed that Poles murdered 200 thousand Jews. Then he backed out and claimed that several dozen thousand. Do you know how he arrived to such conclusions? It is estimated that 10% Jews (over 250 thousand people) could escaped from Germans (from transports, ghettos, camps etc). After the WWII registered not more than 60 thousand. So what happend to the 190 thousnad Jews? They must have been killed, and some people among other Mr Gross without any proof calims that many died at the hands of Poles. Facts that every escapee was executed on the spot without evidence are not important for them. These are simply hideous slanders and anti-Polish propaganda.

There is one major flaw with Mr Gross’s article—it somehow implies that the Poles killed more Jews than Germans during the WW2. What Mr Gross talks about is the estimated number of Germans killed by the Poles during the WW2 in Germany-occupied Poland.
However, by far, that estimate does not represent the number of Nazi troops killed by the Poles during the WW2. Mr Gross should have mentioned that Poles were fighting the Nazi Germany on other fronts outside of Poland as parts of the Allied Forces in the Eastern Front, Western Front, and Italy, Norway and North Africa, and the UK where 300 Polish fighter pilots took part in the Battle of England. Somehow this bit of information would have made the text a better one.

Not taken into account were the hundreds of thousands of Polish Americans in the US army. I think the statement is so off the wall, that I think it should be considered a carreer ender by fair minded people

Actually there could be another dimension to the reaction of the politicians in the Balkans to the latest mostly Syrians Refugee crisis. Many of the Balkan countries have very close relationships with the Syrian regime, in the military, economical, labor and other fields and this since the days of the former USSR. Even up until a few weeks ago, some spies from the Czech Republic and other Balkan countries were kidnapped in Lebanon on their way to Syria (by the Sunnis of course). So in reality, the link (militarily and economically) must still exist between the Balkans and the Syrian regime, thus the latest reaction towards the migrants. The British, French and US governments are supporting the Lebanese Army and some other “moderate” Sunni forces on the ground, Hezbollah obviously is backed by Iran, and quite an orgy is going on over there.

- The extermination of Jews (Endlosung der Judenfrage) was decided and precisely planned on 20 January 1942 at the Wannsee conference, by legally, democratic elected German authorities. And the extermination was carried out by the German state.

- Occupied by Germans Poland (the present western Ukraine was also the Polish territory before the WWII), was the only country, where every kind of help given to Jews was punishable by death – often the death of the whole family. In other occupied by Germans countries helping Jews was punishable by a fine or for example losing a job.

- The Polish government pronounced and carried out death sentence against Poles who turned Jews in. The French government caught French Jews and sent them to the German death camps.

- There are numerous Jewish accounts for example by Emanuel Ringelblum that also the Jewish Police chased Jews, and was the most brutal and effective. According to many Sociological Researches, from 1/3 to 2/3 of the Jewish intelligentsia served in the Police.

- Germans murdered over 1000 Poles for helping Jews (cases proved by the Institute of National Remembrance, many other cases has not been verified yet).

- For helping Jews, Germans murdered the whole Polish families including babies, pregnant women, by executing or burning alive, among others families: Kowalski, Obuchiewicz, Baranek, Dec, Ulm, Lewandowski and many others. None of Germans has been brought to justice, even though we know their names.

- Apart from Germans - Dutchmen, Belgians, Frenchmen, Ukrainians, Latvians, Lithuanians served in SS units. There were no Poles in the units.

- In spite of the punishments 70 000 Jews was rescued in occupied by Germans Poland. According to the Institute of National Remembrance about 20-25 Poles were involved in helping every rescued Jew.

- A few hundred thousand Poles risked their lives and lives of their families helping Jews. It’s estimated that 200 000 (prof. Feliks Tych), 300 000 (Wladyslaw Bartoszewski), or about 1 000 000 (Prof. Tomasz Strzembosz) Poles helped Jews. Prof Strzembosz says that official documented cases are only the tip of the iceberg.

“We were rescuing several dozen times more Jews than we have rescued. Fake documents helped but couldn’t guarantee the survival. “ - Wladyslaw Bartoszewski

No nation sacrificed so many lives for helping Jews as Poles, because in many occupied countries the help didn’t involve risk. – Arnold Mostowicz the chairman of The Association Jewish Combatants and Victims of World War II

Until today, I had some hope that the EU could actually act in union and find a constructive, humane approach to this issue. See my earlier comment below for example.

Now though, thanks to Orban and his friends, I give up. There is clearly no set of shared European values that can stand as the foundation of such a union. Let the East go its own way and put an end to the charade.

"There is clearly no set of shared European values that can stand as the foundation of such a union"
I agree.
Germans showed it clearly:
being against building NATO bases in Poland making favor Russia, our enemy.
building Nordstream the way it limits size of gas ships, which may enter Swinoujscie (our sea port), favoring Germans sea ports
signed agreement for Nordstream II with Russia, despite its agresiion against Ukrain, which dangerous for Poland
So, maybe Germans should leave EU.

One does not have to be a scholar to sense that there seem to be serious flaws with the overall scholarship of Jan Gross and his collaborators. This article itself is wrong on several fundamental levels, and certainly in regards to the outrageous, yet catchy, claim that Poles "killed more Jews than Germans." Looking at the source and alleged estimates, I don't believe it would survive any challenge or debate, but coincidentally, Mr. Gross and his friends, as far as I know, do not engage in any open debates with anyone who does not agree with them. This could be because in some of his appearances where he was challenged, he and his responses came across to many as comical and not credible. Even with my limited historical knowledge, my common sense dictates to me that the numbers provided by his crew do not appear to add up. If so, this would not be the first time that Mr. Gross has made unequivocal statements that could not be supported, and serve, in the end, only to provoke, inflame, and malign, Poles. If anyone is to be ashamed at this point in time, I think it should be him, those who support him, and those who associate with him, including Princeton University itself, for lending him a stature, many, including historians, believe he does not deserve.

Professor Gross does not know the facts and does not distinguish between refugees and migrants. The Czech government has welcomed and welcomes refugees when they apply for asylum in the Czech Republic. Repeated statements and actions confirm this. The Czech state - as well as other Visegrad countries - is not willing to accept an indefinite number of migrants in the present flow of migrants from the Middle and Far East and Africa, and opposes compulsory 'allocation' of them without seeing some efective protection of the Schengen or EU frontier and a control of the flow. However in recent decades over one hundred thousand of Ukrainians, about one hundred thousand Vietnamese and a few thousand of Kosovians and Albanians have successfuly settled in the country.

Professor Gross would be well advised to read the British Prime minister Cameron's speech on Islamic extremism of 20 July and devote some time to studying its social historical and political background.

And I do ,very much agree with you.They should have done so not only in the name of humanity,but mainly through compassionate understanding ,how does the country (in turmoil)with no means to feed its own citizens -managing to keep an order in such a chaos of almost 'civil unrest' tone.Shame on EE and shame on EU and others who, while busy making biased media content ,lost the empathy for all involved.Greece ,Italy,Macedonia,honest refugees -I am with you.

Eastern Europeans have been emigrating to countries with similar european, christian culture and willingly integrated into the society within a generation, or sooner. These migrants are coming from different cultures and religion and will never integrate into western society. Enough to visit one of muslim ghettos in Western Europe to get a clue.

Morever. Eastern Europe never forced its migrants on anyone, target countries were free to send them back. Nowadays, migrants are forced upon countries, countries are literally being blackmailed against their will AND against the will of migrants themselves who didnt pay thousand of euros to smugglers to end up in Romania, Poland or Latvia.

So the author is high on lecturing, low on facts.

Also, fascinating that americans are lecturing Europe on morality, while refusing to take syrians citing "security concerns". Aparently, it´s all right for US to reject syrians, but hey let´s force Europe to take in millions. One wonders what was the real reason behind Iraq War. Destabilise Middle East and Europe at the same time, it seems.

The answer to your question is quite simple really. Before the Yemen crisis, Saudi Arabia was debt free, now it having to borrow from the capital markets despite it being one of the wealthiest nations. Syria was debt free before the latest crisis, so was Lebanon up until 1975 and so on..…. It is all about debt and making countries subdued and dependent upon their masters (the five +1).

The Polish history didn’t start 25 years ago but over thousand years ago. Poland for centuries has been one of the most tolerant, loyal and multicultural country. It was not a coincidence that Poland took in thousands of Jews when they were persecuted in Western Europe and Poland become the shelter for them, the home to the world's largest Jewish community of the time. Poland was known as "Paradise for the Jews" If you don’t know this you should learn history, true history not anti-polish propaganda.

Lets remind the readers that these were Germans (which now blatantly advises us as regards immigrants) who together with Soviets started the II World War, completely destroyed Poland (It is estimated that only material loses amounts to 850 bn USD and the loses don’t include the loss of 178 000 square kilometers of the Polish territory in the East (so called Kresy), exterminated 1/3 of the population (in 1939 before the War Poland had the population of 35 million and after the War in 1946 only under 24 million citizens left.) Some historians estimates that over 10 million of Poles including 3 million of Jews lost their lives during the War. Poland has never received any compensation from Germany for human or material loses. Poland after 1945 was not an independent country but was a Moscow satellite with installed by Moscow communist regime. For Poland the WWII didn’t ended in 1945 but in 17.09.1993 when the last Soviet soldier left Poland. Poland now is one of the most homogeneous country not because of its intolerance but because of the aggression of Germans, Soviets, their extermination and decisions of the Soviets and Western allies which were taken treacherously without participation of Poles.

The aim of Germans was to “destroy Poland completely”. On 22 August 1939 Hitler ordered Wehrmacht commanders “to kill without mercy men, women and children of the Polish origin and language. This way we obtain the lifespace (Lebensraum) we need. Poland will be deserted and sattled by Germans.” In other speech he said about his plans towards Poland “only nation, whose leadership class will be destroyed, can be transformed into slaves”

On March 15, 1940, at a meeting of the commandants of various camps in occupied Poland, Heinrich Himmler, the head of the SS and German police, said:

“All skilled workers of Polish background are to be used in our war industry. Afterwards, Poles will disappear from the world.... Every German’s time is coming. That is why it is necessary for the great German people to see their main task in the destruction of all Poles.”

The first Prisoners in Auschwitz were Poles, the Polish intelligentsia. The first transport arrived to the camp on 14 June 1940. Every transport was welcomed by these words: "You arrived here not to a sanatorium, but to a German concentration camp, from which there is only one exit - through the chimney. If someone doesn't like this - can right away go to Barbed Wire Electric Fence. If in the transport there are Jews, they can live not more than two weeks. If there are priests, they can live one month, the rest three months.” For the first 2 years Poles we the biggest group of prisoners in the camp. Not only Auschwitz, there are many other places, symbols of the extermination of Poles and the Polish intelligentsia: Palmiry, Piasnica, Intelligenzaktion i AB-Aktion, Pawiak, Dachau – a place where Polish Catholic Priests were murdered, Sachsenhausen, Buchenwald, Stutthof, Gusen and almost 5 thousend other German camps were Poles were exterminated.

These all are facts in contrast with the disgusting Gross’ lies that "Poles killed more Jews than Germans during the war." The Polish Underground State, The Polish Government in Exile, and the Polish Army (Home Army) killed only Germans and rescued Jews. There was no given command to kill Jews. Poles were the same exterminated by Germans as Jews.

As regards present situation Poland because of Partitions, WWII and communist governments is still a quite poor country. We simply can’t afford to maintain economic immigrants. Nonetheless Poland is open for real war refugees (we have taken in thousands refugees from Chechnya and Ukraine) but not mass economic immigration triggered off by German policy encouraging the people to come to Germany. We don’t need German camps for economic immigrants in Poland.

what mister Gross is saying is precisely the quintessentially what is wrong with the state of EU of today. Western and northern Europe is on defensive mode on their privileged position attained by industrial and financial capacity of their enterprises, while eastern and southern Europe is second class Europe, with industry depleted - by EU directives (e.g. Sugar production in Slovenia) and a market for second grade products with its people as a pool of cheap labour for western corporations. Living standard in eastern/souther europe lags significantly behind from west and now west when thing with emigrants got nasty is again lecturing east on morality. You cannot expect countries who don't provide for its own people to accommodate migrants.

Eastern Europe inclusive Hungary indeed cannot be proud how the sudden inflow of migrants was managed. Professor Gross however judges based on fluffy review of the current events. Although being professor of history he forgets for example facts that Hungary received ten-thousands of Polish refugees in 1939, more than 10 thousands of Greek refugees in the early 50-es, hosted more than 30 thousands East-German citizens and let them go to (West) Germany in 1989, received thousands of Rumanian refuges after the Romanian revolution in 1989, and provided shelters to several thousands people escaping from the wars following the breakup of Yugoslavia. Thus it isn't true that East Europe or Hungary had not demonstrated active sympathy to people in need. Professor Gross moreover forgets to mention that not only the CEE states have concerns regarding the current mass-immigration: apparently all the three states having opt-out from Schengen-Treaty are not, or only in very low number willing to accept Syrian and Afghan refugees.